Marketing Efforts Delivering Impressive Return on Investment as New program gets underway for 2018-2019

Nassau, Bahamas – International arrivals in The Bahamas show a solid growth of +10.2 percent year-to-date, maintaining the tourism turnaround that began in October of 2017. The growth trend is driven by strong performance from the U.S. but a 29.6 percent increase through July in arrivals from Canada is also contributing to the overall growth story. The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and Aviation restarted robust marketing and communications efforts in North America telling The Bahamas travel story to consumers by bringing travel journalists and digital influencers to the country, and using strategic content and digital amplification to reach travel decision makers. The Ministry is already underway with the marketing program for 2018-19 and anticipates continued business growth supported by this work.

“We have seen very good news and gratifying results across major Bahamian tourism sectors in recent months and are very encouraged. Using our new tracking tools, we have seen double-digit increases in international arrivals and strong business on the books for future months. Lynden Pindling International Airport has reported historic arrival numbers for the country’s premier airport facility. Browse Nassau hotels on Trip Advisor for this coming weekend and you may see that most of the hotels are projected to sell out soon and we are seeing very strong occupancy rates. These outcomes are validation of the sales, marketing and communications work we have been doing,” said Hon. Dionisio D’Aguilar, Minister of Tourism and Aviation.

A communications program is underway for the 2018-19 fiscal year and writers and influencers from the U.S. will arrive within days to kick off a new cycle of Bahamas storytelling. Writers from major publications including Good Housekeeping, Essence and Red Tricycle will visit The Abacos next week to capture the island-hopping and family travel options there. Grand Bahama Island will host a select group of influencers for an itinerary specially curated to develop visual stories to showcase the water, beaches and local heritage of the island for important platforms like Instagram. Development of a late fall trip to Cat Island is underway, along with ongoing outreach to media to promote fall travel offers and events, and to support several new American Airlines flights into the destination.

The Ministry of Tourism is also deploying advertising across a variety of broadcast, digital and out-of-home channels in key markets, raising awareness of the destination. An ambitious content marketing program complements this traditional advertising with the goal of inspiring consumers to explore more islands across the country.

The Ministry of Tourism and Aviation expects tourism growth to continue as bookings are up 6.7 percent over the August to October period and show a 10 percent increase for the final two months of 2018.